GENOCIDE AND SUICIDE AMONG
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE: THE NORTH
MEETS THE SOUTH
Antoon A. Leenaars
880 Ouellette Avenue
Suite 7-806
Windsor, Ontario
Canada, N9A 1C7
Jack Anowak
880 Ouellette Avenue
Suite 7-806
Windsor, Ontario
Canada, N9A 1C7
Colleen Brown
880 Ouellette Avenue
Suite 7-806
Windsor, Ontario
Canada, N9A 1C7
Trish Hill-Keddie
880 Ouellette Avenue
Suite 7-806
Windsor, Ontario
Canada, N9A 1C7
Lucien Taparti
880 Ouellette Avenue
Suite 7-806
Windsor, Ontario
Canada, N9A 1C7
Abstract I Resume
Indigenous Deople around the world have staggering rates of ~uicidEfr
the young, ~deSDite low rates in the p~. This paper
presents reflections of the peopie""themselves from the Arctic and Australia,
giving voice to the shared malaise. The narrative accounts show great
similarities. The high rates of suicide are associated with genocide, including what is called cultural genocide, in both regions.J.(ldigenous peoeJe are
~evelopin traditional approaches to healing using their culture as the
primarY vehicle to their we ess.
eSpeclaiiy"'~rTlOng
......-
~
Les peuples indigenes, a travers Ie monde, presentaient auparavant un
faible taux de suicide; il est desormais stupefiant, surtout parmi les jeunes.
Cet article propose les refJexions des habitants d'Australie et des regions
arctiques, dans lesquelles s'exprime un malaise partage. Les recits cornportent de nombreuses similitudes. Les taux eleves de suicide se rattachent
etroitement au genocide, incluant ce qu'on appeiie Ie genocide culturel,
dans les deux regions. Aujourd'hui, les indigenes developpent des approches traditionnelles pour remedier a ce probleme; ils utilisent ainsi leur
culture comme vehicule principal a leur bien-etre.
The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XIX, 2(1999):337-363.
<
Leenaars/BrownlTapanVAnowak/Hm-Kedd~
338
They lived here since the world began. They are the Indigenous people,
or more accurately, just people of the world. They lived in the North, the
South and all corners of the world. They were a prosperous, active, adaptive
people, attuned to the land. The land was sacred; until, as told in prophecies, the White invaders came. The invaders-or settlers as they called
themselves-came to take the land and to destroy the people as a race.
Cultural genocide, sometimes genocide, was the intent.
The Indigenous people were then, and even now, treated as primitive,
passive, and dependent people, a race with no contribution to the world
(see the opposite view, for example, in Jenness, 1922). This view was
paradoxical because the world was not only sacred to them, but their
ancestors. The invaders saw the "natives" as needing to be assimilated into
their superior race. The settlers' real intent was for these people not to exist
because they wanted to take the land and wealth. Genocide by the
colonialists was not rare during those years worldwide as, for an example,
the potato famine intentionally perpetrated by the English on the Irish,
beginning in 1845, shows (Mullen, 1997). Queen Elizabeth, King Ferdinand,
Queen Victoria, King Louis, and so on were the "Adolf Hitler's" of their day.
"Auschwitz" was an everyday reality for many people across the world
during the years of colonialism and the years that followed.
Subsequently, the Indigenous people suffered unbearable pain, many
dying from the traumatic aftershocks. Suicide became an escape, the only
solution for some. Yet, of late, these proud Indigenous people are giving
voice to their pain. It was, in fact, prophesized that this time of healing would
come (Connors, 1995). It is within this socio-historical context that we tell
the story of the North meeting the South. Our intent is to remind all of us
that we are all just people, whether in the North or South, an archetypical
aim of suicide prevention (Shneidman, 1985).
A Personal Frame
Suicide is a common problem among Indigenous people across the
world. Historically it was much less common. This is true in the North and
South. Lucien Taparti (1998), a recently deceased Elder, from the Arctic,
stated:
In the past we hardly used to hear of suicides in our communities and would hear of them every so often only... Only once in
a blue moon you'd hear of suicides in one of the communities.
But nowadays, in one year there would be quite a few suicides
(p.xi).
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
339
The same is true in the South. Polly Sumner-Dodd (1997), a well
respected Aborigine, stated: "Suicide was not known in traditional Aboriginal society." She notes that today, as in the North, suicide is common in
Australia. She adds:
The incidence of suicide prevailing unveils to us a landscape
of unhealed wounds, a reluctance or even lethargy to seek
therapeutic intervention, the availability of Aboriginal appropriate treatment regimes and the failure of institutions, such as
the family, health and welfare support services and custodial
centres in their duty to care.
The same is true in the North, leading Lucien Taparti (1998) to conclude:
It's hard to grasp the problem. I feel we should look for solutions
and start giving this matter more consideration/attention (p.xi).
This is the intent here: to give voice to the malaise in the North and South.
Suicide issues are complex. No one person, especially a non-Native,
can know all about suicide among Indigenous people. Only recently have
Native people been utilized as credible informants about the event (Hunter,
1991 a; Kral, Arnakaq, Ekho, Kunuk, Ootoova, Papatsie and Taparti, 1998;
Leenaars, 1995), and therefore, this paper is written by Native authors (and
one non-Native) from two groups of people, the Inuit in the Arctic and the
Aborigines in Australia, each of whom has been able to reflect on the issues
in their own people. We recognize that we do not represent all Indigenous
people or even the Inuit and Aborigines. Yet, we hope that our perspectives
will cast a wider net over the shared issues than one view in isolation. One
perspective, especially non-Native, on suicide among Indigenous people
would be myopic.
By way of a personal history, maybe a short story of how the North met
the South, will assist, a story that came to us by no coincidence. The authors
from the North (Canada), Jack Anawak, Antoon Leenaars and Lucien
Taparti had been invited to give a keynote address at a global meeting of
suicidologists in Adelaide, Australia (March 23-27,1997). We spoke about
"Suicide Among the Canadian Inuit" and there met Trish Hill-Keddie. We
spoke, shared and learned how much the Indigenous people had in
common. Next, as the senior author (AL) had done in his travels in the North
(Leenaars, 1995), he was invited to communities of Aboriginal people in
Australia. We travelled to Wreck Bay, a beautiful community situated on a
sacred beach near Canberra and we met Colleen Brown. Once more, we
shared and learned about the commonalities of the malaise in the North
and South.
340
LeenaarslBrownlTapanVAnowaklHill-Keddre
Thus, we hope, with at least two perspectives on the topic, from two
different groups of Indigenous people, one from the North and the other
from the South, that we can come to a closer approximation of understanding the complexities of suicide among Indigenous people. We hope
that it will aid not only in the understanding of people but the healing of all
people.
Epidemiology and the North-South Scene
The Indigenous people lived here since the world began (Ray, 1996).
They have been bonded to the earth since the beginning of time. The earth
and the people are one. Stories by the people, in fact, tell of generations
living in both the South and North.
White scientists have suggested that Inuit and Aborigines migrated
from Eurasia. The Inuit, we were told, crossed the Bering Strait from
northern Asia and the Aborigine crossed over an Indonesia land bridge from
southeast Asia. Early estimates were that people came to Canada about
12,000 years ago. The estimates for the Aborigines in Australia were the
same. Estimates later changed to 30,000 years ago in the Arctic and 40,000
years ago in Australia. Some believe that it may have been actually over
100,000 years ago. The people, however, know that they have always been
on earth. This is what "Dreamtime," Aborigine stories in the South and
"Unikkaartuit," Inuit stories in the North tell. Regardless of one's perspective, the people lived essentially in harmony with the land for a long time,
until the invaders came.
Epidemiology is the study of the incidence, distribution and determinants of a disease or an event, such as suicide (see Durkheim, 1897). There
are few early observations about suicide in either the North or South,
although it appears that the reports on the rates of suicide in these two
regions differed. Early records on suicide suggest epidemic levels in the
Arctic, whereas in Australia, very low rates were recorded at the turn ofthe
century. Older records from the people themselves indicate that suicide was
very rare in either the South or the North.
Weyer (1932/1962) was one of the first to state that suicide was a
cultural trait of the Inuit (although he called them "Eskimos'). Boas (1964)
concurred that suicide was not rare. These observers discussed suicide as
a way of life of the Inuit, documenting, for example, cases of "altruistic"
suicide. They noted that suicide, among the elderly, disabled, and sick, was
often undertaken to preserve the group. However, although suicide in the
elderly, for example, occurred, Weyer and Boas may have exaggerated
their reports, loosely collecting data from diverse events, not only self-inflicted death (Kirmayer, Fletcher and Boothroyd, 1998). Even more so,
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
341
youth suicide was very scarce in the old ways, but not so today (Kirmayer,
1994; Kirmayer, Fletcher, and Boothroyd, 1998).
The records report a different scene in Australia. In Australia, early
commentators noted that suicide was quite scarce among Indigenous
groups (Moodie, 1973). Cawte (1964) concluded, in fact, that suicide was
"almost unheard of'. Moodie (1973) cites a rate of3 per 100,000, compared
to around 12 per 100,000 in the general population of Australia. As in the
North, despite limitations (e.g., events being recorded in specific communities only), suicide in the young was rarely recorded (Hunter, 1991 a, 1991 b;
Reser, 1989a). Yet, as Reser (1989a) has concluded in Australia it is
"erroneous to equate low incidences with non-existence." This conclusion
can be transposed to Canada. It is often erroneous to equate observed with
actual incidence of suicide in both countries (Kosky, Eshkevarit, Goldney
and Hasson, 1998; Leenaars, Wenckstern, Sakinofsky, Dyck, Kral and
Bland, 1998).
Today, the rates are quite different than the past. Suicide rates in the
North and South have increased dramatically in the last 30 years. Reser
(1989a, 1989b) in Australia reports "epidemic" rates. He quotes rates as
high as 60 per 100,000, which is six times the general population. Other
rates reported, however, are as low as 17.5 per 100,000. Reser and others
have made special note of suicide among Aborigine in custody with rates
of 131 per 100,000 (Reser, 1989b) (and this higher rate in Indigenous
people in custody is equally true in Canada). The rates of suicide among
the young, especially among males, are especially high. No sound data on
attempts exist in Australia, although research is currently being undertaken.
Canada's North has equally high rates of suicide. Abbey, Hood, Young
and Malcolmson (1993) have, for example, reported rates of 59.5 to 74.3
per 100,000 in various communities in the Arctic, compared to around 13.5
per 100,000 in the general Canadian population. The highest risk group is
the young males and this rate is increasing (Kirmayer, 1995), a situation
echoing Australia (Reser, 1989b). Some communities have reported extraordinary high rates among the young by any international standards.
Wotton (1985), for example, reported a rate as high as 295 per 100,000 for
15 to 25 year olds in one community.
As in Australia, there is little study of attempters in the Arctic (and
Canada as a whole). Boyer, Legare, St-Laurent and Preville (1998) present
a unique study of attempt rates in the Inuit. They reported a life-time
prevalence of 14%. This rate compares to one of 3% in the general
population (Domino and Leenaars, 1994). Ifthis is true in the South, as we
believe, then rates of suicide attempts are truly at epidemic levels, like the
rates of suicide, among the Indigenous people. Thus, it is easy to conclude
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LeenaarslBrownlTaparti/Anowak/Hill-Keddie
that suicide and suicide attempts are a serious public health problem and
mental health problem in the North and South.
Stories from the People
Understanding suicide is complex, more complex than early commentators in both the North and South suggested. Suicide has increasingly been
understood as multifarious. As in all suicides, there is pain, mental constriction, frustration of needs, and so on (Leenaars, 1996; Shneidman, 1985).
Suicide is, however, not simply a psychological event. Suicide is equally an
event with socio-cultural aspects (Hunter, 1991 b; Shneidman, 1985). As is
well known, the Indigenous people have experienced profound cultural
change in their lives and this rapid change has had a major impact on the
Inuit and Aboriginal people (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples,
1995; Read, undated). Thus, it is easy to conclude that a socio-historical
account is crucial for understanding contemporary suicide in both the South
(Hunter, 1991 b) and the North (Leenaars, Anawak and Taparti, 1998).
To understand suicide, we believe that giving voice to the people is a
credible avenue to knowledge (Hunter, 1991 a; Leenaars, 1995). Narrative
accounts have, in fact, a long history in people's past. They have been the
way to knowledge among Indigenous people since the world began. In
Westem culture, science has included not only statistical nomothetic approaches but also narrative, idiographic approaches (Benjafield, 2000;
Windelband, 1904). Although there may be shortcomings in the use of
idiographic approaches (e.g., unrepresentativeness of sample, self-deception, blindness to motives, errors in memory), Allport, in 1942, had argued
for the use of such documentation, showing the importance of personal
documents in human sciences. He argued that letters, logs, memoirs,
diaries, autobiographies, personal accounts, and so on, have a place in
understanding people and to aid in the aims of science in general-understanding, prediction and control. This has been true in suicidology (e.g., the
study of suicide notes) (Shneidman, 1980). The tabular, statistical, demographic, quantitative, nomothetic approach has a place in understanding
the generalizations about suicide among the Indigenous people. Yet, the
idiographic approach, which involves the intense study of individuals,
equally has a place. It is, in fact,' the personal accounts that allow us to "do
justice to the fascinating individuality" of people (Allport, 1942).
Story telling or narrative knowing is the tradition of people across the
world (Kral, Arnakaq, Ekho, Kunuk, Ootoova, Papatsie and Taparti, 1998;
Leenaars and Kral, 1996). No statistics can capture the pain of the people,
and thus, we report some personal documents about ttJe events. We do not
wish to imply that the nomothetic avenue has no place, only that both
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
343
avenues are needed to comprehend suicide among the Inuit and Aborigines, a view supported by a report of the International Academy for Suicide
Research (Leenaars, De Leo, Diekstra, Goldney, Kelleher, Lester and
Nordstrom, 1997). The documents will be the actual words from Anawak,
Brown, Hill-Keddie, and Taparti. Each of these individuals was asked to
reflect on the issues of suicide and to share some of their thoughts and
reflections on the topic. The words below are extracted from documents,
discussions, communications and presentations (e.g., Anawak, 1994;
Brown, 1991, 1992; Hill-Keddie, 1997; and Taparti, 1998).
The Problem
Epidemiology does not provide a full reflection of the pain in the North
nor in the South. To illustrate, let us share with you a trip on the land in the
Arctic. The senior author (Leenaars, 1995) went out for a Kamatiq (sled)
ride with two Inuit guides on Baflln Island. We went overthe ice of Frobisher
Bay and went inland over the small lakes and land, while it was snowing.
We travelled and travelled. The caribou were passing us; it was like what
one sees on a National Geographic special. The land is not only beautiful
but also healing. On the trip, we stopped at a camp for tea-after all it was
2:00 p.m.-and as we sat, one Inuk (singular for Inuit) told about his sister
and brother who had killed themselves. Everywhere there is pain. Regardless of where you go, one becomes aware of the vast number of suicides.
All of the community is experiencing aftershock. The official statistics of the
North are likely unreliable, according to the people themselves. Subsequently, travel to Australia suggested a similar problem. Suicide is so vast
in both regions. Not only do the epidemiological studies underreport the
problem, but the people themselves had become silent.
Jack Anawak stated the following about the silence and what the people
need to do:
It is a sad fact that the Arctic leads the country in many respects
when it comes to suicide. I say this because we cannot sit back
and pretend this problem will go away or just solve itself. We
cannot assume that other people will address the problem or
take action on our behalf. It is our problem and we have to deal
with it. Often we have heard people say they are scared to talk
about it because ifthey do, it will cause more people to consider
doing it. This kind of fear and the silence that results from it
keeps the subject of suicide under the table instead of being
put squarely on the table to be looked at and dealt with. I believe
that when we leam to really listen to each other and care deeply
about keeping the lines of communication going with each
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LeenaarslBrownlTaparlVAnowaklHill-Keddie
other that people are going to feel better about themselves and
their work.
It is especially the young who are affected in the Arctic. The same is
true in Australia. Trish Hill-Keddie noted:
The majority of suicide attempts within the community have
been by Aboriginal youth, aged between 14-18 years. Tragically, these young people have never been re-integrated back
into the family unit or their community. Suicide attempts within
the community are hidden from Police and welfare agencies,
simply because of the shame attached to the attempt.
There are young people who choose suicide because of the psychological
impact that the history has on both them and their parents.
Let us illustrate with a case example from the South from Hill-Keddie.
At approximately 12:35 a.m. during a head count, the deceased
"was discovered hanging by a torn bed sheet from the louvers."
The deceased had made a telephone call to a female on the
day before his death. The call apparently caused him some
distress, although the contents of the conversation are unknown. At approximately 12:00 a.m. he had shown a letter to
his cellmate who declined to read it (believed to be a suicide
note).
According to the Queensland Corrective Services Commission
report, there had been no "current indications" that the deceased was at risk as he had "not been assessed as being at
risk or requiring observations since August 1995" (Indigenous
Deaths in Custody 1989-1996. A report prepared by the Office
of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Commissioner for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission).
This young Murrie boy who took his life will never again feel
the sun upon his face, the voice of his mother who loved him,
the laughter of his brothers and sisters, or the sounds of the
didgeridoo the things he loved in life. Sadly, the child's mother
was taken from her family during a "social experiment" which
went horribly wrong, she was trying to come to terms with her
own loss and grief, and had thought many times of taking her
own life. The forced separation of thousands of Aboriginal
children from their parents and families is still impacting upon
our people today.
The association of the rise in suicide to cultural genocide is obvious to
the Indigenous people. Hill-Keddie's own memories are as follows:
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
345
Mum remembers being dragged away kicking and screaming,
Nanna was collecting the eggs when the welfare car came up
and a Policeman grabbed them. They were trying to get out of
the car window and nanna was trying to grab their hands and
get them out (abridged from an article in The bulletin June 27,
1995, used with permission).
This scenario is one to which I can relate. I am a "stolen child",
this extract is from an article written by my sister. I am a survivor
of what has been described as attempted genocide, but there
are many Aboriginal people who have past and present, mutilated, self harmed, and attempted suicide in an effort to erase
the separation pain they endured during this experiment. The
suicide attempts are at present growing, and are exacerbated
by existing Government Policy, ill health, in communities,
unemployment dislocation and family breakdown. The majority
of these attempts are youth. Most attempts are made within the
communities, they are hidden from the public.
Of course, the secrecy and denial are not only about suicide but about
many aspects of life and death. As an example, the loss of culture can be
dramatically illustrated in the alienation that occurs during death in these
cultures. Bereavement has often, in fact, been seen as a window to a culture
(Leenaars, 1999; Wass and Neimeyer, 1995). Colleen Brown noted:
Years ago bereavement wasn't such a big deal because of the
closeness in the kinship with Aboriginal people. If somebody
died at Wreck Bay the biggest church service was held-in the
house where that dead person came from it was beautiful.
Nobody seemed really sad, it was like one big family, all
together, it was really good. Over the years a lot of that
closeness has gone. The old people have gone and they are
a totally different generation of people.
Because of a lot of settlements around the states there are a
lot of people moving away from the missions to areas where
they know nobody. If a death occurs within their family where
they have moved to they have go nobody to go to that they
could relate to.
The North has an equal problem in bereavement. Grief in the North and
South is often complicated grief (Cox, Bendikson and Stevenson, 1999).
People do not know how to experience and express their losses, abandonments, etc. Not only is there suicide and death, there was a loss of how to
cope with life's losses, pain and so forth. How to live was lost to the
Indigenous people in both regions.
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Leenaars/BrownlTaparti/Anowak/HiII-Keddie
Cultural Genocide
There is no question that the high rates of suicide in the North and South
are largely due to cultural genocide. As an example, Australia's people were
taken away as children from their families and were raised as White children
in White homes. Historically, the official perspective on why children were
taken from their families and raised by the non-Aboriginal people in the last
decades can be gleaned from the doctrine of the Aborigines Protection
Board in 1909. The abduction of children was to be a solution to "aimless,
useless life of idleness and vice" of the Indigenous people in Australia. The
adults were written off as lost generations, but the children ofthe Aborigines,
the Congress decided, required the "gravest consideration." The only
solution (somewhat consistent with a suicidal mind) was the following:
... the removal of the children and their complete isolation from
the influences ofthe camps. Under no circumstances whatever
should the boys and girls be allowed to return to the camps,
except on a short visit in an emergency and then only by
consent of the department. .. In the course of a few years there
will be no need for the camps and stations; the old people will
have passed away, and their progeny will be absorbed in the
industrial classes of the country (Aborigines Protection Board,
1909).
The Aborigines Protection Act was amended in 1916; it read "The Board
may assume full custody and control of the child of any Aborigine, if after
due inquiry it is satisfied that such a course is in the interest of the moral
and physical welfare ofthe child." Often there were no inquiries, the children
were simply ''taken''. The government had the power to remove any child,
much like the aim of the residential schools in Canada, as we will see.
Stories are rife about the unbearable pain that occurred, because of the
government's solution. Loss, abandonment, hopelessness and helplessness were common reactions. In Australia there are endless stories about
the stolen generations (Morgan, 1987; Read, undated). Pauline McLeod,
an Aboriginal poet, is a well-known public case example ofthe ''taken''. She
writes:
Separated
Fretting, sad
Given into other hands.
Parents, sisters, brothers
gone
Wondering what did
I do wrong
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
347
Pauline McLeod was separated from her family at a young age and
lived in various homes until she was four. Pauline was told that her natural
parents had abused, neglected and rejected her. At 12, she was sexually
abused by her foster father-an event that occurred frequently among the
''taken''. Yet, she writes, "I've lost one family, I don't want to lose another,
so I'd always do whatever they'd say. Even things that were quite hurtful or
annoying I'd tolerate." Pauline struggled during adolescence. One day
when threatened to be sent away for stealing, she attempted suicide with
a gun. To return to the family, she was required to say "Rosy red, everything
was alright, nothing was wrong." Later, Pauline discovered her Aboriginality
and survives today because of this ownership. She writes: "Please! No
more, the hurt, the pain."
Of course, in Canada, atrocities also occurred. In Canada, including
the Arctic, the Native children were taken to residential schools. We shall
not expand here the events in detail as it would repeat the accounts from
Australia; however, let us quote Roland Chrisjohn (1994), a Native psychologist in Canada. He stated:
Residential schools were one of many attempts at the genocide
of the Aboriginal Peoples inhabiting the area now commonly
called Canada. Initially, the goal of obliterating these peoples
was connected with stealing what they owned (the land, the
sky, the waters, and their lives, and all that these encompassed); and although this connection persists, present-day
acts and policies of genocide are also connected with the
hypocritical, legal and self-delusional need on the part of the
perpetrators to conceal what they did and what they continued
to do. A variety of rationalizations (social, legal, religious,
political, and economic) arose to engage (in one way or another) all segments of Euro-Canadian society in the task of
genocide. For example, some were told (and told themselves)
that their actions arose out of a Missionary Imperative to bring
the benefits of the One True Belief to savage pagans; others
considered themselves justified in land theft by declaring that
the Aboriginal Peoples were not putting the land to "proper"
use; and so on. The creation of Indian Residential Schools
followed a time-tested method of obliterating indigenous cultures, and the psychosocial consequences these schools
would have on Aboriginal Peoples were well understood at the
time of their formation. Present-day symptomology found in
Aboriginal Peoples and societies does not constitute a distinct
psychological condition, but is the well known and long-studied
response of human beings living under conditions of severe
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LeenaarslBrownlTapanVAnowaklHffl-Keddie
and prolonged oppression. Although there is no doubt that
individuals who attended Residential Schools suffered, and
continue to suffer, from the effects of their experiences, the
tactic of pathologizing these individuals, studying their condition, and offering ''therapy''to them and their communities must
be seen as another rhetorical maneuver designed to obscure
(to the world at large, to Aboriginal Peoples, and to Canadians
themselves) the moral and financial accountability of Euro-Canadian society in a continuing record of Crimes Against Humanity (Chrisjohn and Young, 1996:2. Quoted with
permission).
Genocide was widespread. It was layer of cultural genocide upon layer
of cultural genocide. The Native people were subjected to a genocide
(Government of Canada, 1998; Hunter, 1991 a; Leenaars, 1995), actions
that were intended to remove the people from earth as a people. It was one
generation after the next, since Cabot landed in Canada and Cook in
Australia. The foster homes in Australia and residential schools in Canada
were only the latest attempts at cultural genocide. These atrocities, however, had been denied, even by the people themselves. In the North and
South, people are only since the 19905 beginning to remember and accept
the problems. Jack Anawak stated:
We must never give away this responsibility for this problem
ever again! Nothing ever got any better when we tried to give
it overto others-in fact things just got worse! It's time to admit
this problem isn't going to noticeably decrease until we look at
how we are reacting to it, take the steps NOW to make the
changes in our own homes, in our own lives and in the level of
interest, sincerity and understanding we show to our young
people. If we don't set an example on how we deal with our
own frustrations, anger, fear and uncertainty then how can we
expect someone younger, and perhaps more vulnerable to
handle their issues any better?
People from around the world need to understand the malaise in both
regions. Lucien Taparti reflected:
... when it comes to us, the people in the communities, I wonder
if we are going to be silent about this or are we going to try to
do something about this before our elders die off.
A person's life is precious and it seems like the elders knew
this. Even though the people were capable once, later they
forgot these things. For example, they have forgotten the
hunting of the animals and the heavy labours of survival on the
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
349
land. Even though these people know they need help, they
don't really ask for help, so it becomes a burden for them in
their mind.
The same is true in Australia. Trish Hill-Keddie stated:
The assimilation policy from past years is still prevalent in
today's society, and although these young people have never
been "stolen" from their families, they experience the pain that
their parents are enduring. Many young people have unwanted
pregnancies at 14 years, and cannot cope with the hardship
they must endure at such a tender age. There are many factors
attributing to attempts, but one of the most alarming, is glue
sniffing. When you have been dispossessed it is a feeling of
absolute isolation and exile, it is a feeling of having your very
heart ripped from your body. You no longer have your extended
family for support-for they are lost in their own despair.
Aboriginal people dispossessed feed off those with the same
loss, this alienates our people from mainstream resources that
would enable them to heal.
Colleen Brown has also noted that we must listen to the people. Only
then will the people share the pain and heal "in return for our willingness to
listen and to try to understand." Generations had suffered, but the people
are now a healing people.
Giving Voice
The people had been silent. They were lost. They were stolen. Yet,
there is now a voice crying in the wilderness in both the desert of the South
and the tundra of the North.
During a visit in the early 1990s to Rankin Inlet, a beautiful community
on the very north shore of Hudson Bay, the senior author and Jack Anawak,
M.P. met with Senator Willie Adams and the mayor of a hamlet, Chesterfield
(Leenaars, 1995). At a recent school reunion in Chesterfield, there had been
many tales of abuse and sexual abuse by the VVhite men. The abuse, like
elsewhere, was often by the Catholic priests and Anglican ministers. Since
the events in Chesterfield were learned, it has become well documented
that they were not unusual in residential schools (Government of Canada,
1998). Since the first landings, the churches were not only the promoters
of cultural genocide for the Kings and Queens, but also carried out the
atrocities. An Inuk woman, for example, shared the following about abuse
by a priest in a residential school. She said sexual abuse occurred to
everyone. It happened for years; yet, she believes that "it never bothered"
her. Although, at the same time, she reports years of depression, asking
350
LeenaarsIBrownlTapanVAnowaklHm-Keddre
why she might feel that way. She was alienated not only from the past but
from herself. These events had been shared over and over by many in the
Arctic.
Sexual abuse is also now discussed in Australia. Pauline McLeod, the
poet discussed earlier, was sexually abused. Sexual abuse was not rare in
the ''taken'', but it was only in the early 1990s that a voice to the abuse was
spoken. Sexual abuse, rape, and so on, often of children, occurred to the
Indigenous people from the first days that the conquerors landed. Even the
stories of Christopher Columbus attest to the rapes and subsequent massive suicides that occurred in the Caribbean. The sexual abuse was only
one abuse. As an aftershock, the memories were subsequently buried, to
use a metaphor, in the sand and the snow. There was loss. There was a
loss of identity. There was no respect. There was no dignity. To heal, the
people must now reclaim what is buried (repressed), including the unbearable PAIN.
Jack Anawak stated:
In our tightly-knit communities we too, have developed some
gaping holes that we must not ignore. We cannot pretend that
we are all happy and are all safe within ourselves. Our traditional beliefs remind us that we are interdependent-we affect
each other. We are taught that there is a collective benefit only
when we work together, value each other and ensure that
people have a sense of belonging. We have to take a long look
at ourselves to see if we live our own lives honouring these
principles in our daily interaction with our families and within
our communities.
Trish Hill-Keddie stated the same:
Each suicide, or attempt within the community is an irreplaceable loss, which makes Aboriginal people feel that they are
under constant threat of genocide again. The loss of Aboriginal
identity and the destruction of Aboriginal culture have contributed to a tremendous sense of loss within Indigenous communities. Children are urbanized to a point where they are
accepting the ''white mans" way of living, drugs and alcohol are
an indiscriminate part of life, this paves the way for our children
to lose themselves and their identity. They are being assimilated into the lowest classes ofthe culture imposed upon them.
They are not learning about the importance oftheir culture and
current education systems treat the culture as stories and
myths. The system we live in now does not tolerate discipline,
white structures have now penetrated traditional ways, our
children have no longer the respect for our old people, who
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
351
once held great esteem within the community. They do not
understand how actions of the past impact on their lives, they
just feel empty.
A healing is needed. Trish Hill-Keddie concluded:
Aboriginal people are surrounded by death, whether it be from
a death in custody or death of our culture, and the death of our
land or suicide within the Aboriginal community. Aboriginal
people are not provided with answers, therefore reinforcing the
feeling of powerlessness, which then results in hopelessness
and extreme turmoil. Many Aboriginal people turn their grief
upon themselves, in that, the experiences they and their families have undergone in the past have impacted upon them so
heavily some have forgotten who they are, and some have
never known. The thought that the deceased's spirit will never
be "set free" adds to the loss and grief they are experiencing,
therefore making it impossible to deal with. Many of our people
have forgotten how to cry, and consequently, never share their
grief with anyone else. The fear of death lurking, and the
inconsolable sadness and loss, combined with enormous depression, the break-up of the family unit, alcohol and drugs,
and the already total isolation does not enable Aboriginal
people to go through the "healing process."
Lucien Taparti has stated the same in the North:
Many of us have experienced losing someone. That's why I
really want to talk about it. If I were silent, I know it wouldn't be
of help. We have to be visible and if we are visible then that's
how the problem will become visible.
Culture
The pain of the people is "deep in the psyche." Traditional ways among
the people had been forgotten. Acculturation was the norm. People don't
know who they are, where they came from, and where they are going. The
abuse at Chesterfield, for example, is only the surface of the problem. How
the people think... how they talk... has been affected deep in their psyche.
The people in both the North and the South had their culture stolen. Culture
is the collective meaning and value of a people. The Royal Commission on
Aboriginal Peoples (1995) in Canada wrote:
Culture is the whole complex of relationships, knowledge,
languages, social institutions, beliefs, values and ethical rules
that bind a people together and give a collective and its
352
LeenaarslBrownlTapanvAnowaklHill-Keddie
individual members a sense of who they are and where they
belong (p.25).
Culture is rooted in one's land. It is a vast heritage. The cultural
genocide was initiated to destroy that meaning and this deeply affected the
mind and spirit of the people. The best analogy that we can offer from the
North is the iceberg. In the Arctic, icebergs are large and what people are
beginning to struggle with in the North is likely the tip of the iceberg.
Analogously what people are beginning to struggle with in the South is only
a few grains of sand from the desert and in Australia, the outbacks are very
large. Colleen Brown stated:
I would dearly love to be able to get with the older people, too,
that were taken away and get their feelings and thoughts on it,
you know, but the trouble is that they have kept it for so many
years inside that I don't think they would ever part with why, or
explain or talk about why and their life being taken away from
their family. I think what they have done is suppress it so far
down that they won't let it come to the surface.
Only by re-Iearning the traditional ways and meanings with the new is
healing possible. We do not believe that people can only heal by going back
to the old; there is a need for growth and development in culture. To go back
to only the old ways is much too simplistic of a solution. This is as true for
the North as it is in the South.
There are problems in both regions. Substance abuse is, for example,
a major one. The governments, however, rather than developing ways at
prevention, used the alcoholism against the people themselves. The
authorities in Australia, for example, did not tell the stolen children about
their families, their culture and so forth. The government actually intentionally used th'e alcohol to destroy the culture and then perpetrated the lies to
the "taken". The children were told that the parents were only drunks, with
no contribution to their meaning and lives. In response, Colleen Brown
stated:
... the trouble is the takers never told the taken why their father
and mother ended up alcoholics, did they? I mean, why did the
older people end up like that, I mean, it's easy-their kids were
taken from them. How else did they expect them to react? They
drank themselves to death, the parents. I watched them. I
watched it all my years of growing up. The parents drinking
themselves to death because the welfare came and took their
kids. I mean what else did they have to do with their lives? I
saw one woman go into the hospital and I used to watch and
think, oh, she's coming home today. She would never come
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
353
home from hospital with a baby. The welfare would take the
child from her before she left the hospital. They let her keep
the eldest boy, all the rest after that were never brought home.
I mean, you know, that couple drank themselves to death. I had
the eldest son that was left with the parents say to me, "Aunt,
how do I get me family back together? I want my family to be
a family." I said, "Mate, it won't happen." I said, "You could try,
I'll help you in every way." I said, "It sounds good but there's
no closeness." It comes back to what we were talking about
earlier. There was no family closeness, they were all separated. I said, "It just doesn't happen that way," I said, "It's a fairy
tale."
Of course, people need to understand that the substance abuse is a
face of self-destruction (Farberow, 1980), not the cause of it. The substance
abuse is a result of the cultural genocide, not the cause of it. Trish
Hill-Keddie noted the following about such problems:
Suicide in Aboriginal communities is ''taboo.'' It becomes a
shame issue. The family of the victim is either shunned, or the
actual event never occurred. No intervention takes place, no
loss and grief, no questions asked, it is accepted, Why? What
can be so traumatizing as to push a young person to neck
themselves. This is the reality of being part of a minority group
that has been imprisoned by a culture that sees itself as perfect
and expects all other cultures to conform to its ideologies,
however, it brings with it white alcoholism, ill health, incarceration and an inconsolable sense of loss.
I look at my life and question why I am so comfortable, why I
have not self harmed, I am, like many Aboriginal people
dispossessed, fighting a system that does not acknowledge my
culture, that still believes I come under the "Fisheries and
Fauna Act," that believes Aboriginal people should reconcile
with ''white Australians," yet we as Indigenous people remain
at the bottom of the Social Justice ladder.
Healing is possible. Many people in the North and South believe healing
is now occurring. People need to give voice to the sexual abuse, the alcohol
use and much more. Suicide must be discussed. Jack Anawak once said,
"I have no questions about who I am. I'm an Inuk, but I can adapt to other
ways." The Aborigines in Australia have said the same: "I am Koorie-I
survive" (Koorie is a group of Aborigines living in New South Wales).
In the North and the South, the people speak about assimilation,
acculturation, and being ''totally lost." Accepting the acculturation is hard;
yet we and others encourage progress, a ''waking up." The Inuit and
354
Leenaars/BrownlTaparti/Anowak/Hill-Keddie
Aborigines are beginning to talk. Yet, healing will take a long time, because
the Indigenous people have not only lost their way of life, but some, their
spirit. They were stripped of their dignity by the VVhite man. There was no
respect of people. Their children were taken from them. They were imprisoned for speaking their languages. They were raped. They were abused. It
was a cultural genocide and, as the example of Tasmania will show, it was
a genocide.
Many doubt that genocide occurred among Indigenous people, even if
these same people accept that cultural genocide occurred. The attempt to
kill the Indigenous people across the world can, however, be tragically
illustrated by the events in Tasmania (Commonwealth of Australia, 1990).
In 1788 Governor Arthur Phillip arrived in Sydney, Australia. The
settlers, many of them convicts, came to settle the land. The Native people
fought for their land, but the British soldiers attacked and killed the people.
They destroyed the lifestyle. There was resistance, some like Pemulway,
a warrior, fought but was killed (New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council,
undated). Within 50 years, the colonists hunted down and killed the people
by the hundreds. The Arctic did not see these large-scale massacres, likely
because there was no value to the land in the North initially. Of course other
atrocities, such as the introduction of the great diseases (e.g., measles,
tuberculosis, influenza) by the VVhite people contributed heavily to the
people's demise in the North. But, in Australia, the land had immediate
value and was taken away from the Native people. If the Natives were in
the way of these conquests, like in Tasmania, they were killed.
The Tasmanians lived on the land, the island, since the world began.
They were a sharing people: Sharing food, holding sacred and secret
ceremonies, arranging marriages. Men hunted. Women gathered small
animals, collected shellfish and prepared food. They were a spiritual people.
They had totems and taboos. Then, the invaders came.
In 1642, the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman landed. This signaled the
end of the Aboriginal isolation and life style. From the 1770s on, the English
and French visited the island and in 1803, the first "settlers" came and
tragedy prevailed.
Aboriginal society is based on sharing and exchange. In retum for gifts,
Aborigines expected fairness and respect, that was their way as it is in the
North. The settlers, however, saw the Aborigines as taking the land because
primitive ownership ofthe land was not understood. They set up land claims,
built fences and so on. The Aborigines' land and sacred places were taken.
Hostilities arose. In 1804, the first massacre in Tasmania occurred. Women
and children were ordered to be killed. By 1806, massacres were common:
Children were abducted; women were raped, even the young; people were
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
355
tortured; and all Native people were enslaved. By 1820, the White settlers
poured into the land in greater numbers, taking more and more land that
did not belong to them. Then in 1824, Governor Arthur proclaimed martial
law. He ordered every Aborigines man, woman and child to be killed. A
reward was offered for their heads and a massacre occurred. The Aborigines people fought back. In 1830, a military operation was introduced to kill
all remaining Aborigines. Between 1829 to 1834, it was believed that the
genocide was completed. The last Tasmanian, Fanny Cochrane Smith,
died in 1876. Yet, the people prevailed. There were survivors of Tasmania,
who had fled to the mainland. These people today have returned to
Tasmania and continue to live on their land.
Tasmania is, unfortunately, only an illustration. We shall not report other
atrocities in the South or the North. We will only cite, as an example from
Canada, that Cartier, the French conqueror, exterminated the Stadaconans
on the St. Lawrence River in the same fashion in Canada (Ray, 1996).
Tasmania is not unique; rather, it illustrates the intentional genocide against
Indigenous people all over the globe.
There is hope, however, from the abyss. Lucien Taparti, stated that
"people have been crying inside for a long time." Yet, he sees hope in
culture. Lucien Taparti stated:
We all have different lives, different cultures, and we can't say
that the qablunaat have a strong culture. All of us came from
our ancestors and if we could grasp that back then there were
less suicides, perhaps we could start utilizing our culture for
prevention. We'll have to know more about the cultures of our
ancestors, and try to follow them and try to help each other
more. We can use many peoples' cultures, whether they may
be the qablunaats', the Dene's, or even the Inuit's culture. If we
can be more aware of people's cultures, I'm sure we would be
able to come up with something that would be Of benefit.
Culture, the way of the people, is a solution. Colleen Brown quotes the
following from one of the "taken" when asked what she would say to the
White people:
What would I say to them? Oh, what would I say to them. I
suppose just try to understand. I mean, you've gotta been
there, done that situation to know what's going on. Just listen
to them, try to understand. Because what's happened to them,
what's happened to me, has really knocked me around. Even
today it knocks me about. Just try to understand that. .. listen
to them, you know. Being brought up by white people, it's hard,
but it's even more harder when you get out, out into the real
356
Leenaars/BrownlTaparti/Anowak/HiII-Keddie
world, real society, when you run into your own people. I used
to just walk past my people, you know, just look at them, just
keep walking.
There is hope. The culture in the North and South, despite the attempt
at cultural genocide, is alive. The cultural genocide failed. It is culture, the
people's heritage, that now offers hope.
Colleen Brown stated:
Our history is to be found in the "unhistoric," in the suffering of
an oppressed people, struggling with the question of what it is
to be human and Aboriginal in a seemingly inhumane world.
We make people aware of what our culture is about. There are
a lot of people who've grown up in other towns that never had
to do with Aboriginal people. They read and see things on
television. What publicity is highlighted to do with Aboriginal
people, it is all bad. They only show the bad ones, it's never
the good ones that they show.
Years ago the townspeople weren't interested in anything
about the Aboriginal people, whereas today, because I suppose we have got a lot of people within different Aboriginal
departments, they are willing to learn more, which is a whole
new turn around.
Lucien Taparti gives snow as a method to the solution in the North and,
we believe, the South. He stated:
We really have to start thinking of ways to rectify things. I'm
sure this can be achieved somehow, but I don't know the
answer to it. If solutions came from a larger community it could
be a starting point, and even if they think they couldn't come
up with solutions, they would be able to do so. Just as long as
they have appropriate laws (rules) that they'd use. As long as
the rules are capable of being followed. I'll use snow as an
example: it is worked on by different people-some are very
good with snow and some are able to work with it but not as
well. That's why we use different types of snow to work with.
Snow was our mea>ns of survival, even when we were young
and even when we became adults. I wasn't worried at all,
knowing that we'll get an iglu, even when there was going to
be a blizzard. That was one ofthe laws and I followed it; so that
was our life and the iglus were where our lives were. That's
how we used to live in the winter time.
And Jack Anawak stated:
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
357
As Inuit people we have survived in what is considered to be
the most challenging climate in the world. We have coped for
hundreds, even thousands of years and developed attitudes,
behaviours, values and beliefs that allowed us to face whatever
had to be dealt with and to overcome great difficulties. We must
call upon those same values that brought us to this day. We
need to own this problem. We cannot give it over to the
governments, authorities, specialists, professionals, scholars,
organizations or consultants. We own this problem. Say
it. .. Believe it! We are part of the problem if we do not acknowledge this fact and take both individual and collective action to
address it.
We have finally come to realize that:
WE are the experts on our stories.
WE know the strengths and weaknesses of our own communities.
We have a pretty good idea about how things got this way.
We have a value system that is worth honouring ...
and WE do have the brains to figure out what to do about it
Culture is a way to healing for all people. Polly Sumner-Dodd (1997)
has concluded the same: "The incidence of suicide prevailing unveils to us
a landscape of unhealed emotional wounds, a reluctance or even lethargy
to seek therapeutic intervention, the availability of Aboriginal appropriate
treatment regimes and the failure of institutions, such as family, health and
welfare support services and custodial centres in their duty to care." In the
North and the South, the people are now calling for traditional healing.
Western treatments are, in fact, often one more attempt at cultural genocide. Simple solutions do not work. Yet, going back to only the old is not a
solution either. We are at the beginning of the year 2,000. "Long times", as
Indigenous people would say, are needed for healing. Sumner-Dodd
(1997), in fact, concluded the following: "Perhaps it describes the resiliences of the Aboriginal community as by right they (Aborigines) should
have all fallen by the wayside." The same is true in the North. To repeat
Jack Anawak's words: "As Inuit people, we have survived in what is
considered to be the most challenging climate in the world." The people will
survive. It is, in fact, believed by many Native people that the V\/hite men
may not survive, if they continue their atrocities to people and to the Mother,
Earth.
Lucien Taparti has made the same observation in the North. He stated:
If we started tackling different things that we were capable of
doing on our own, we couldn't really think of other things to get
into. Soon as we were capable to do things that we had to
358
Leenaars/BrownlTaparlVAnowaklHffl-Keddre
follow, we didn't have much to be concerned with, not like our
young people I see today. That's how it is with our culture from
the harsh region; our cultures are all different and we need to
keep our culture visible. lfwe ignore the issue, it is obvious that
it won't get rectified.
The solution, according to Lucien Taparti, is ''to teach our young people
of their own culture, whether it be Inuit culture, qablunaat's culture ... " In
both the North and South, culture, i.e., the collective meaning and value of
a people, is seen as the means for healing. This is true, of course, for all
sound healing, even Western ones (Leenaars, Maltsberger and Neimeyer,
1994). The Indigenous people survived since the beginning of time. They
still know how.
A Final Story
One marvels at the people in the North and the South. They have
endured and survived cultural genocide and sometimes genocide. They are
a strong people; their visions, in fact, will be essential to all, if we are to
survive the 21 st century.
We are struck by the similarities of the North and the South. As a final
illustration, we share a story from the North: In Pangnirtung, we had heard
an Elder speak. She told about the old ways, and then the whalers came.
People hunted. People cleaned the whale ... "and then the white man would
take the catch, leaving only blubber for us." "In our way," she said, ''we
share th~ labour and the catch."
In Wreck Bay in Australia, we had heard another Elder speak. He told
about the old ways and then the sailors came. Sealskins were desired.
People had always hunted the seal for food, skin and so on, this was the
law of the land. Yet, when the sailors came they violated the law, taking
only the skin. The people were forced to help in the hunt. Not only Nature
but people were abused. The people were treated cruelly, leaving nothing
for the Aborigine ways. The Elder said that the Aborigine way is one of
sharing and then we will survive. The fact that these two different cultures,
the North and the South, have the same archetypical story is not an
accident. It is the wisdom of the people, since the world began.
Genocide and Suicide Among Indigenous People
359
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